Forget the Rust Belt or the Sun Belt. The ‘Wired Belt’ may be the next frontier of American political power

The laid-off factory worker from Youngstown, Ohio, became the defining figure of American politics for the past two decades. The jobless financial professional from Philadelphia’s suburbs could be the defining figure of the future, and their demands may be harder to ignore. That’s the warning from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. The American AI Jobs Risk Index—an analysis mapping the economic and geographic impact of AI job risk across 784 occupations—shows exactly where the white-collar workers most threatened by AI displacement live. Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and the study’s lead researcher, said that with the proper organization, these workers will become a stronger political force than any the U.S. has seen in recent decades. This geographical concentration, which he terms the “Wired Belt,” includes the suburban rings surrounding America’s biggest metros, many of which exist in swing states. “These are people who are on LinkedIn,” he told Fortune. “They know their congressman’s phone number. They’re good at writing, web design, data analysis, marketing. Their political activism is likely to be much more forceful.” The looming threat of AI automation has struck a chord with millions of Americans. A recent NBC News poll found the technology is less popular than President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even after its deadly Minneapolis crackdown. Besides the cybersecurity risks and environmental impact that fuel anger toward the technology, one of the main concerns stirring fears and frustration is that knowledge work is appearing increasingly susceptible to AI automation. The swing-state voters who could decide America’s next election The study estimates that 9.3 million jobs are vulnerable to AI automation across the country. That amounts to a towering $200 billion in lost income. In an extreme scenario where AI is able to r